D&D 5E Death and 0 Max HP

So an interesting thing happened in our game yesterday. One of the characters was killed by a vampire and had her maximum hit points reduced to 0 by the bite. A couple rounds later (vampire defeated), our bard with Revivify tried it and the DM ruled it failed (due to her maximum hp at 0). Now it is a race against time as the party has about 20 days (gentle repose) to find a priest to cast Raise Dead.

Our group is wondering will it work? Or is she doomed to remain dead? After all, she is still with maximum hp of 0. She is dead so she can't really rest to recover those hit points. We were thinking maybe we would need a Greater Restoration to restore the maximum hp first and then cast Raise Dead.

I don't know how our DM will rule it so I am thinking of getting compelling argument material in case he rules unfavorably. Thoughts?

The Greater Restoration option seems like the most reliable one. It should work on the corpse, or if it doesn't, neither should the vampire's bite effect.

He is pretty reasonable (most of the time LOL) for a DM. I think the Greater Restoration followed by Raise Dead is the way to go, just to be safe instead of Raise Dead by itself.

Now we just have to get to the city and hope we can find a priest who can do it (9th level is not common in our game), and of course we have to get back in time and try not to get waylaid.

Do note that you can cast gentle repose again before the first casting expires. That helps with time pressure.

Wow, that's an interesting place. I'm think about this both as if I was DMing this party and as RAW as I can get, which sometimes don't line up.

The reduction in max HPs continues until a long rest. RAW, a dead character can't take a long rest. But then RAW there's a question if the object (body of the dead character) is a valid target anymore for the HP drain. (Note that the buried & rise portion does not say that the body must still be at 0 max HPs, just that it was slain via this method, so it gives no guidance.)

Long rest mentions sleep with the possibility of light activity for up to 2 hours of it. Dead you can't sleep so by RAW that doesn't qualify.

Greater Restoration, on the other hand, is very clear that it needs to target a creature, which the dead body does not qualify as. So there's no way to cast that. Remove curse does target a creature or object so it could target the body, but there is nothing in the wording of the Vampire's Bite defining this as a curse.

Both Raise Dead and Revivify specify that you have 1 HP. How that interacts with 0 max HPs is undefined in the game, but the common usage of "maximum" implies it doesn't work.

Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection have lists of what could be affecting a corpse, including wounds/damage, poison, disease, curses, and "the like".

Okay, here's thoughts:

Most permissive RAW: There is nothing that states that your HPs can not go above your your HP maximum via non-healing means, so Revivify (and better) would work, though the character's HP max would still be 0 (which is only death in conjunction with the Vampire's bite). A Greater Restoration or long rest to remove that penalty would be STRONGLY recommended. As a DM, I don't like this because it takes the horror away on top of it begin ridiculously legalistic and ignoring common usage of words like "maximum".

Permissive DM: I could allow that when the time for a long rest has passed, the HP maximum reduction has expired and raising after that would work. This is making a ruling that the vampire bite isn't supposed to last for more than about 24 hours so it's a temporary thing. This would still rule out Revivify so it keeps the appropriate level of horror. I might rule this for some tables I've been at.

Moderate DM: Make the ruling that Remove Curse will work (since it can target an object and "curse" seems to fit the vampire myth concept) and/or Greater Restoration can target a dead body since it once/will be a creature. I would likely go rule here myself, it gives a reasonable out and keeps the horror of vampires. (Side note, I'd also allow a Remove Curse before a corpse is buried to prevent rising as a vampire, along the same vein.)

Extreme RAW: Long rests can't happen, it's not a curse, greater Restoration can't target an object. Find another way to do it. Might be a quest or True Resurrection.

To me, the fact that Raise Dead provides a very specific note about magical diseases still impacting....I would say magical effects like the HP drain still apply, and so a greater restoration would be the way to go.

I'd probably have them come back as a Vampire.

Their hp maximum is 0 so they can't be alive, so if they come back it'll be as undead.

Edit: Well really I'd probably let them come back with 1 hp apparently alive, and be able to rest to raise their hp total. The vampire stuff would come later...

Stalker0 said:

To me, the fact that Raise Dead provides a very specific note about magical diseases still impacting....I would say magical effects like the HP drain still apply, and so a greater restoration would be the way to go.

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Yeah, you'd have to be pretty literal to say that "This spell doesn't, however, remove magical diseases, curses, or similar effects; if these aren't first removed prior to casting the spell, they take effect when the creature returns to life" wouldn't cover max HP from greater restoration.

Worst case scenario I'd rule that a person with max HP of 0 is raised but unconscious at 0 HP. Since they're now alive again they can now take a long rest. Unless of course the group buries them just so they have a vampire spawn to kill for XP.

jaelis said:

Do note that you can cast gentle repose again before the first casting expires. That helps with time pressure.

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Yeah, we finished the session with Gentle Repose cast and having returned to the manor at the village. One of the characters has a Giant Eagle steed, so we are thinking of placing the corpse (which is under 5 feet tall luckily) into our bag of holding and sending him ahead to the closest major city, where he has the best chance of finding a cleric high enough in level to save her. The rest of the party will follow as quickly as possible. We don't like splitting up, but it seems our best bet.

While I think RAW there is nothing wrong with repetitive castings of Gentle Repose, I doubt our DM would allow it. We already house-ruled revivify because it is OP as is. He likes death to be an actual issue in the game.

For those who are interested, I will give a quick recap. The character's max hp was already greatly reduced by the wraiths we faced before the vampire. Two punches knocked the character out, and then a bite as a legendary action ended up being a critical for max damage, reducing the character's already reduced max hp to 0. The party won, but the character in question is one of our two primary spellcasters (secondary healer/ wizard combo).

I'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. I'll update the thread in two weeks when we continue. Thanks for all your feedback!